Sleep Party People share sublime new single 'Fainting Spell' [405 Premiere]

The project of Danish musician Brian Batz will release a new LP, Lingering, on June 2 through Joyful Noise Recordings.

Sleep Party People, the fantastic project of Danish multi-instrumentalist Brian Batz, is a little less than a month away from a new record. Lingering, which will be released on June 2 through Joyful Noise Recordings, is poised to be one of the year's best records. With a deft and intoxicating brand of dreamy pop, as well as collaborations from the likes of Peter Silberman from The Antlers and Beth Hirsch (best known for providing vocals on Air's masterpiece Moon Safari), Lingering has all the ingredients to be a smash success. It doesn't hurt that the songs are pretty damn good, as illustrated by the record's second single, 'Fainting Spell,' which is debuting today through The 405.

Constructed with off-the-wall sonics and propelled by Batz's emotive voice, 'Fainting Spell' seems to move in a dozen directions at once, but never once does it seem muddled. Instead, the various mechanisms of the song pull the listener in, offering a reflection of the lyrical themes of disorientation and confusion. “A feeling of fear of the unknown," sings Batz. "A fainting spell appears. Vertigo.”

The wonky instrumentals and crisp production make 'Fainting Spell' not only one of the best tracks from Lingering, but one of the best songs to come out thus far in 2017. Imagine if you swirled prime Miike Snow and Air into a blender, along with a little more edge, and you'd arrive at 'Fainting Spell.' According to Batz, the song's eclectic structure came about from his affinity for imperfect instruments.

"My old battered piano in the studio needed to be tuned and fixed. After the tuning session a lot of the strings broke and left the piano in a terrible condition," said Batz. "But I've always had a weakness for broken instruments. They can give you something unexpected and eventually something useful. The sample you hear in the beginning and throughout the song was recorded using the higher octave on the piano although it was out of tune and strings were missing. But it turned out to be very useful indeed, because this loop basically wrote the rest of the song. The piano loop and the awesome drums played by Anders Bach from Ice Cream Cathedral are just the backbone of the song and I'm absolutely honored to have him playing the drums on the whole album."

In many ways, Batz's use of an instrument that most would cast aside as broken or defective reflects the lyrical themes of the track, which examine Batz's own childhood.

"The lyrics are about being the quiet boy in class and how dreadful it was for me to even speak out loud during class," explained Batz. "I almost fainted every time I had to walk up to the blackboard and speak in front of everyone, because I was so terrified to fail or not deliver what was expected of me. Now I dwell much more in the person I have become although I'm still not a fan of being the centre of attention and speaking in front of a class. But I guess you get better at those things as you get older."

Check out the sublime 'Fainting Spell' below and look out for Lingering on June 2.